


Not so fine

by Shadowdianne



Series: Cissamione [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Pre Relationship, a one shot is a one shot even if it doesn't seem like it will be a one shot, aka the author is a tease
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 20:50:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17552981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/Shadowdianne
Summary: Hogwarts doesn't have the only library in the wizarding world, of course. There's a library for adult witches/wizards when they're no longer students, which Hermione frequents. When she finds out she's gotten a heavy fine and marked "DELINQUENT" in their scrolls, she goes to apologize and figure out what she did wrong. As it turns out, one Narcissa Malfoy works there at the Hexes and Fines desk, and she is not inclined to be forgiving.(Somehow asked by Rubikanon)





	Not so fine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rubikanon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rubikanon/gifts).



> -peeks from above laptop screen- You know, this is the perfect time to mention that I tend to use the word “tease” not only related to the stories I write itself but for my lovely predilection of writing open endings in one shots I keep as one shots just because.
> 
> Having said this… I’ll be at the comment section.

 

Walking briskly down Brompton Road, dodging groups of tourists and London-born groups of muggles and wizards, Hermione left Harrods behind as the biting cold of the last hours of the afternoon gnawed at her cheeks. Buildings rising at both sides of the street, the first lights already beginning to blink back to life, she refrained her compulsion on checking her wrist watch as she already knew she was twenty minutes away from finding the National Art Library, as muggles knew it, closed.

Growling inwardly, the young woman put her fists even deeper into the fastened coat around her body, the nervousness that had appeared inside her chest earlier in the day when a memorandum had arrived to her office with the words _: LOAN DENIED- DELINQUENT_ , resurfacing again as she needed to almost duck and jump between two groups as she kept her pace down the heavily packed streets. No one on their right mind would walk during this time of the day on this side of London. An idea that assaulted her as she, finally, saw the corner of the building she had been so intent on reaching before the clock struck six thirty. Unfortunately, she truly hadn’t had any other option; deep as she was in the middle of a case for the Ministry she knew that there wouldn’t be any other time for her to look up the books she had requested to loan. Hence the sick feeling that had coiled around her stomach when she had received the notification of how she wasn’t supposed to be lend the books.

Shaking her head, the witch tried to recollect a time when she had forgotten to bring back a book in time. There had been some close calls back at Hogwarts, but she had always been able to put them back in time before Madam Pince asked for her head. Even after Hogwarts, she usually wrote notes for herself in the case her memory didn’t work. Which was the reason why the note had been a surprise, one she very well intended to fix. If she reached the building in time, of course.

Not quite jogging but half-way considering the possibility, the witch finally put a foot on the entrance of the building, extracting her right hand from her pocket and pushing the door open as she slipped inside. The scent of books, warm and recognizable, hit her nose just as the door closed behind her and, even with the anxiousness that had been eaten at her ever since the note, she couldn’t help herself but smile just slightly at what had been the only perfume for her during her formative years. And even beyond that.

Her moment, however, was short lived as her eyes focused on several wizards and witches that were mixed with the reading muggles inside the place. Their slightly widened eyes told her that she, again, had been recognized and despite how well Harry had learnt to pretend being comfortable on situations like this after ten or so years of the war’s ending, she herself hadn’t mastered that yet. Nor she understood why there were some who still gawked at her. Shaking her head and walking towards the counter in were two clerks were patiently seated at, she produced the enchanted card with her name and moving picture.

“Would it be possible” She began with a soft voice towards the obvious witches’ duo that glanced at her in some mild-annoyance the brunette suspected was learnt by everyone working on a library long enough. “to talk with someone from Hexes and Fines?”

The right witch from her wordlessly pointed at the open doors at the other side of the room, the ones Hermione knew were the ones that would led her deeper into the library archives and, also, the place was the mix of muggle world and the magic one came to a halt. Muttering a quick thanks that went completely unnoticed by the duo, she turned and walked towards the doors, taking long strides once she left behind the hawk-eye like gazes from the clerks and onlookers alike. Glancing at her clock, she saw that she, apparently, still had ten minutes to spare. Ten minutes she hoped to use in order to pay the fine and be able to pick up the books she had been denied before.

Her thought process reached a halt when she, finally, found a small dark-wooden door at the right of the hall she had been working, one that was definitely longer than it should have had from a muggle perspective. In the door, etched in white lettering, the words “Hexes and Fines” welcomed her just as she pushed the door open in a similar manner she had done mere minutes before. The small, square-shaped office that welcomed her was full with the same scent of books and dust that she knew by heart but the brunette still felt like taking a step backwards out of pure surprise when her eyes zeroed on the desk propped up the farthest corner of the room in where, surrounded by books and what seemed to be quite the amount of parchment and quills that were exquisitely organized, sat a woman Hermione had certainly never expected to see there.

“Mrs. Malfoy?”

The blonde, who had been reading something from quite the long parchment, didn’t startle -it would be unbecoming of course and Hermione had always had the hunch that every manner Bellatrix lacked Narcissa Malfoy had it in spades- but rose her head quite quickly as she let the parchment return to its previous rolled state with the flick of a finger. Raising one brow at Hermione as the twenty-something-year old woman approached the desk, her blue eyes bore into her, not amused.

“It’s Black now.” Her voice had the soft, cultivated accent Hermione recognized and, despite herself, the younger witch found herself blushing slightly as she was reminded of the divorce that had certainly shaken the wizardly world after the buzz of the Death-Eater trials had ended. Swallowing and unfastening her coat, letting the long lapels to fall limply and a peek of her Ministry-ready clothes glance from underneath, the brunette let out a hum.

“Of course, I’m sorry.” She muttered and some of Narcissa’s iciness disappeared at her answer. It being quickly replaced but something that Hermione couldn’t quite place even if hold a frightening similitude with Andromeda’s mischievousness from the times she had visited the older witch.

“How may I help you, Hermione?”

It was strange, the brunette halfway thought, to hear her name falling from the woman she had in front of her, the way Narcissa’s lips curved upward slightly, forming a lopsided smile making her avert her gaze for a moment, trying to find the words she had been rehearsing all day on her office. Words, however, didn’t seem so keen on coming out.

Over the years, there had been very few times in where Hermione had been left speechless, but she quickly realized that the surprise of seeing Narcissa Black working there, in one of the biggest wizardly libraries of London, had done the trick. Swallowing and grazing her teeth with the tip of her tongue, she re-focused on the woman again a part of her brain focused all that too much on how the blonde hadn’t seemed to even age a day. A thought a younger her wouldn’t have given much of a thought but her older version recognized as what it was. Something that didn’t quite help with the lawyer of sweat she felt beginning to form on the palms of her hands.

“I was sent a memorandum.” She finally started, and she winced inwardly at the way her voice was slightly shaky. Clearing her throat, she fished out the note from her pocket, the handwriting on the note glaringly obvious now as she walked even closer to the desk and placed the piece of parchment on top of the other documents Narcissa had been reading. “I believe there is a fine I need to pay… although I don’t remember which was the book I didn’t return on time.”

It was supposed to come out as light and soft, the sort of comment that Hermione knew was expected as a small talk, a detail of her own silliness. However, Narcissa didn’t seem quite that amused with the last part of her statement, her hands quickly reaching for her wand -still the same Draco had used, Hermione quickly thought, the dark wood as polished as the day she had last seen it- and letting the notice float back to one of the many niches and crooks Hermione could now see built within the walls around them. A veritable archive on its own.

“If I remember correctly.” Narcissa began, and nothing, from the smoothness of her voice, to the way she folded her hands in front of her made Hermione think she was doubting herself for a moment there. “You already returned the books a week later than they were due. You don’t need to pay a fine… but you can’t take more books until the end of the month.” Her blue eyes gleamed under the warm lights produced by light bulbs Hermione wasn’t entirely sure if they had been enchanted or not to make the blonde’s hair seem almost liquid as she tilted her head and the brunette needed a few seconds of open staring before she blinked, registering the words she had just heard.

“Am I being banned?”

Her voice rose in disbelief and Narcissa let out another lazy smile of hers as she rose her shoulders. It was quite surprising, the brunette thought, seeing the once all powerful Lady of the Malfoy house work in such a place with such ease but the witch wasn’t in the mood to stop and think on such details or the way the back of her brain had certainly picked on the black and blue tailored robes the older witch wore. Not certainly when Narcissa rose and, before picking the parchment she had been reading, she circled the desk, approaching the wall that stood a few feet away from Hermione, placing the parchment inside one of those nooks.

“Not banned.” She said, turning to look at Hermione, one brow raised and the light capturing the movement on her long hair once more. “But I’m afraid there is nothing you can do until the month ends. You are still able to come and check whatever book you may need of course. You simply cannot take them outside.”

The brunette could feel her blood turning ice as she took into the blonde’s words.

“That’s still a week away.” She muttered and Narcissa’s perfume rose to her nose as the blonde walked back towards her desk, leaning on it instead than taking the chair as before. “There isn’t…”

“Any other way?” Narcissa’s lopsided smile turned into a smirk in mere seconds, her eyes narrowing in a way that Hermione’s mind were unable to process. “I’m afraid that’s not the case, Miss Granger.”

The sudden change, the use of her surname instead of her name like she had done mere minutes ago, was more than enough to let the brunette know the blonde was certainly enjoying whatever mishap she had been responsible from by no returning a book she still hadn’t been informed which one had been. Bristling but still shocked enough for her famous temperament to still not take control of her actions, Hermione took a step closer towards Narcissa noticing that both of them were almost a similar height; the way Narcissa carried herself giving the impression of someone taller despite her petite frame.

“I need those books.” She said hotly. And it was true; she was in the middle of an investigation; she needed the books just as she couldn’t deal with a week’s delay. Her words, however, didn’t seem to move the blonde who, with eyes shinning almost like sapphires, ducked to her right, her robes grazing Hermione’s side.

“Come tomorrow.” She said with the curve of her smirk mellowing for a moment, just a second enough to make Hermione swallow, unsure and blaming her damned brain, her damned crush. “You will have all day to read those books. Here.”

“Miss Black.” She began but it was no use; the older witch was already walking towards another corner of the office, picking up a coat of her own as she did so.

“Tomorrow.” The blonde replied, and Hermione gritted her teeth before nodding and turned towards the door of the office; already planning on look into every paper, every book, every place on her small apartment and find any recollection of that book she had apparently returned late. She couldn’t afford not being able to pick those books and check them at work. And if she needed to go some extraordinary lenghts in order to make Narcissa Black cave… so be it.


End file.
